I Surrender All

I surrender All

You all remember the old song, don’t you - "I surrender all, I surrender all. All to thee my blessed Saviour, I surrender all." All the times you have sung that song, all the times you have had that warm fuzzy feeling, all the times you have almost whispered those words to God - did you mean it? Did you really mean it? How much of the “all” did you actually mean? What bit of all have you held back – for whatever reason?

I so well remember ministering to a good friend of mine, with whom God was trying to talk. The guy just didn’t want to listen. The price was potentially far too high for him to risk. The Lord was saying to him, “Give me everything and see what I will do with it.” “Everything, Lord? Job, home, family, and finances?” the man countered. “Yes – everything”, the Lord said. The man thought about it for a few seconds. “I can’t,” he said, “He might keep it.” My mind went to the rich young man who gave much the same answer. I also remembered the Lord’s comment, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” You see, here was one man who had indeed sung that song but didn’t really mean it.

This is typical of so many Christians over the centuries. God calls them to surrender all to Him but, although they try to do so, there is nearly always something that is held back – something they cannot quite let go completely. It has happened to you. It has happened to me. It has happened to all of us. There is always that certain something that we feel we must retain control over it. For many it is a ‘biggie’ like finances, or career, or where we live. For others, it is something relatively minor, even insignificant, we feel we have to keep to ourselves. We even tell God, more in hope that He’ll believe us, that He has everything. We forget He is all seeing, all knowing, and all understanding. Don’t be silly, of course God knows you still hold it back from Him. He wouldn’t be God if He didn’t know that now, would He?

Yet “all” is what our loving Heavenly Father still asks us to give to Him and “all” is what He really does expect from us. We have discovered that the more we surrender to Him, the more freedom we have. It’s crazy and it’s a contradiction in terms, but it’s true. The more we have, the more we give to Him to control, and the more He gives back to us. Yet it is still that word ‘control’ that we are still so unwilling to surrender.

It has to be a pride thing doesn’t it? When will we learn? My wife and I are still learning and I hope more and more is being surrendered every day but I am sure there is still even more to go. To be very honest, I don’t even know if there is anyone in our circle who is totally surrendered.  All I do know is that it is working for us and I intend to try to get to that position of “All to Jesus I surrender – I surrender all”.

"All to Jesus I surrender" - Do you really? If you do, then God will surely take you at your word. It is only when we really are completely surrendered that He can fulfil His every purpose in us - including revival.